


the loneliest moment

by imaginarypasta



Series: as there is life [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Mother-Daughter Relationship, Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:40:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21971488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginarypasta/pseuds/imaginarypasta
Summary: Jazz and Maddie have a few conversations about Danny’s recent reveal.
Relationships: Jazz Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Series: as there is life [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581622
Comments: 6
Kudos: 209





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ok so i’m here with a few very short companion pieces to "as there is life" because there was a few things i still wanted to touch on that i didn’t really get to in the original, for various reasons, but that also don't fit into it super neatly. 
> 
> i'm staring with a jazz-based two-shot because i love her and she’s my favorite. the first part takes place right after chapter 6, the second after chapter 8. hopefully i balanced between the intellect & maturity she exhibits with the inexperience & selfishness she also has, and don’t paint her in too negative a light because i do love her and i want to do her justice. anyway older sisters unite

When Danny left the first time, it was amidst confusion and about as loud as _he’d_ always been — which is to say, not at all. At first, Jazz wasn’t sure why her parents had decided not to go fight the ghost if they knew there was one out there, so she asked.

“Your brother can handle it,” Maddie had said, but the look they shared told a different story. Of course, she didn’t need the brief moment of contact between them to know there was no way that was the reason. They were both already red with worry. “How about we talk?” Ah, that explained it.

They were still sitting at the table, both of their chairs turned towards where Danny had just been standing. Jazz was at a diagonal, opened to both her parents and Danny. She didn’t think too hard about the symbolic implications of the chairs’ positions, because that would open a whole can of worms about which of their children the Fentons clearly favored. And she really wasn't ready to deal with those thoughts again. For all Jazz was the model child, she knew they would never have of her the kind of view they had of Danny.

Back when they were kids, Jazz had been insanely jealous of Danny. They’d both always been good children, but she learned long ago of the disparity between their parents’ expectations for their behavior. He’d always had slightly more freedom than she did, and that used to make her so mad she couldn’t see straight. That was until she decided that her parents still loved her, if that only expressed it differently than with Danny, for whom it was more explicit. It wasn't ideal, but at least she could give it a reason. She loved her brother, and she loved their parents, but they’d always given her a bit less support than they gave him. She supposed that was because she was naturally independent from a young age, wildly driven and capable, but sometimes, she had to admit, she got lonely.

“Sure, Mom, what about?”

“Danny,” Maddie stated simply. And she wasn’t surprised, he’d just dropped a bombshell. She wasn’t expecting it right then, so the three college acceptance letters she’d grabbed from the mailbox before she walked in the house burned a hole in the granite where she’d dropped them on the table under her keys. She’d have to sneak them up so her parents didn’t see and start feeling guilty; it’s not like they were her first or her dream schools or anything, so they could wait. They weren't that important.

They would probably be waiting to be opened for a while.

“What about him?” she asked nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just confessed to being partially dead. 

“You…” Maddie struggled for the words, knuckles turning white around the coffee mug she was gripping. Jazz hadn’t noticed her holding it before. “You seem like you already knew. Is that true?”

Jazz focused her eyes on one of the little circular bumps in the wood of the table. “Yes.” Here it came, grounded for the rest of her life because she didn’t tell her parents about Danny. That he was dead. That he’d been risking his life to save people. That he was the one they wanted to hurt so badly. That he was their worst enemy.

“Is he okay?” she asked. Jazz flicked her eyes up. 

“What do you mean?”

“Is he… healthy, I suppose? Do you think we need to go to a doctor?”

“No, I mean, he heals quickly.”

Maddie frowned. “You mentioned. Jazz, I know you’re very… protective of him. All of us, really. So I think it’s interesting that you're so calm about Danny getting hurt.”

“I’d hardly say I’m calm.” And she wasn’t — she was coming apart at the seams over fear for him, but that always made him clam up, so she’d taught herself to force it down.

“Well, fine then.” Maddie sighed. Her face changed as she clearly skipped the prompt for a fight between them. “Besides, that’s not what I meant. I mean, like a therapist or something. I thought… his moods these past few years have been teenage hormones. But now I’m thinking it’s something else. Phantom… is very different from Danny and-”

“They’re the same person, Mom,” Jazz interrupted. “Always have been.”

“I know…” Maddie said and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You’re right. But the way he presents himself is different. At least around your father and me. And I’m starting to think that the… aggression he has exhibited in the past… could be hurting him in the long run.”

“You think…” Jazz asked, eyebrows drawing down as she realized this might be about something a bit more supernatural than teen angst. 

“Maybe he’s depressed?” she suggested. Jazz breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. At least she wasn’t going off about ghostly mimics of emotions or their natural predisposition to violence like she did so often.

“I think you’re probably right,” Jazz said after a moment of thinking. “But Danny won’t go to a therapist.”

“Why not?” Jack asked, and both women jumped. He’d been so quiet they’d forgotten he was even there. “If it will help him, he should go.”

“You’re right…” Jazz began. Her fingers inched elegantly along the edges of the placemat in front of her. “But there was this… issue he had a while back. And it’s a long story, but basically there’s just about no way you’ll be able to get him to open up to a professional. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

Her parents sighed. “Okay, well, we’ll have to talk about what we want to do about that, then,” Maddie said as she stood up. “Jazz, your father and I are going to clean the lab. Care to help?” She shrugged and placed her hands on the table, elbows up and braced for movement.

“I’m actually going to read a book, if you don’t mind,” she said. Her parents nodded, Maddie grabbing her hand and giving it a small squeeze and Jack patting her shoulder as they left. Neither noticed the triad of brightly colored envelopes resting on the white-gray countertop.


	2. Chapter 2

The second time he left, Jazz didn’t even know he was gone until Maddie came up with her eyes red and watering.

“Mom, are you okay?” she asked, jumping up. Before she could even place a hand on her shoulder, Maddie swatted it away. She slowly, quietly returned to her spot at the table and her mother joined her. 

Maddie sobbed for a few dozen seconds more until she finally stopped, a bit abruptly, and said, “Danny left.”

Her mind stood still for a moment. He left? Without telling her? Of course, that meant he’d snuck out, which he did on the regular. But he’d almost always tell her beforehand or leave a note if she was busy, “just in case” he’d said the one time she’d asked him. She was impressed by his foresight, but absolutely shattered at the thought that he was willingly risking his life so frequently. The one time he had forgotten to mention it, she’d been up hours too late bawling over the loss of her brother, still deciding how to explain to their parents that he’d just vanished. She hadn’t let go of him for at least an hour after he got home, only relinquishing her grip when he begged to be allowed to sleep. 

“Do you know where he went?” she asked as soon as she could speak again.

“No, but he just took off after I… it doesn’t matter, but he left. And I don’t know if this is a place he’ll want to come back to, Jazzy.”

Jazz sighed, a bit surprised at herself she found her mother’s breakdown to be so irritating. She chastised herself for that and said, “He’ll come back, Mom. He always does.”

Maddie blinked at her with big, wet, brown eyes. They made her stomach lurch and she didn’t know why. “He’s done this before?”

Jazz looked sheepishly to the book she’d closed and neatly placed on the tabletop. Her fingers pulled the edges of the pages up and down, making a rhythmic little ripple. “Not for long. Not long enough that you’d notice, anyway.”

“Where?” she asked, then corrected. “No, why?”

Jazz pushed the book away from her, the room going eerily quiet. “You and Dad… have said a lot of things over the years that really scared him. I think, for a long time, he didn’t feel safe here. He’d never admit it, and I can’t be sure since it was before I found out. But he really felt like no one was on his side. And of obviously he had his friends, but they could only do so much without living here or something.” She drew her hands to a pile in front of her torso, moving as much as they were still. 

“That’s the first time I noticed it. Happened twice and I had no idea why. He came home all bruised and grimy and I asked why he was all dirty and he said ‘I ran away.’ He wouldn’t tell me why. And then the Spectra thing happened and he did it again a few months later and this time when he came home, he told me it was because…” She spared a glance up to her mom, who was shaking with tears. “I don’t know, you or Dad said something that freaked him out. Don’t remember what exactly.” She did remember — _We’ll tear that ghost kid limb from limb if it’s the last thing we do, right honey?_ But her mom didn’t need to hear that right now. “He’s never stayed away more than a few hours at most.”

Maddie’s face was a mix of relief and regret, but her voice was bitter. “How could you not tell me, Jazz?”

Jazz blinked, a bit startled at the accusation. “It wasn’t my thing to tell.”

“Even so,” she said, “he was getting hurt. Physically, emotionally, psychologically. Why would you keep it from us? Why would you put him in danger?”

She turned to face her mom, eyes boring into her. If Danny could tell her his secret, she could say this. “You know, I was the one who for years told Danny he should tell you. I got into fights with you about the ethics of studying ghosts how you do because I knew he’d tell you eventually and he needed a safe place to call home. And, yeah, a lot of it was because I knew he wanted to tell you anyway and because I was just so sick of having to keep secrets from you guys I thought he’d be safer with you knowing. But, Mom, I can’t say I was never afraid of what you’d do to him if you knew. There was always this inkling that you guys knowing would be worse than what he’d been doing to himself.”

Maddie looked horrified. Every breath she took made her whole body quake. “Jasmine, how could you say something so awful? We would never hurt your brother, you should know that.”

“No, but you would hurt Phantom. And how was I supposed to know who you’d see when you looked at him?” Her voice was acid, her mother recoiling at every word.

“How dare you talk to me like this,” Maddie snapped. “Why do you think you have the right to be so disrespectful to the woman who birthed you? Raised you? Provided for you?”

“Because,” Jazz groaned, finally realizing why she was so angry with her mother. “It’s not about you, Mom.” Maddie lurched at the accusation, but Jazz just went on. She guessed the hot temper was hereditary. “It doesn’t matter how much you did for us or how little you realized or how bad you feel right now. This is hard on him, telling you after so long. After everything you’ve said over the years. About ghosts, about _him_. And you’re making it about yourself.” She took in a shaky breath, stupid tears getting in the way of her words. “And I get that you’re scared for him. I was too. I _am_ too. But he doesn’t need our fear or our guilt or anything else. He just needs our support.”

“How do I do that?” The earnestness in the question, the sheer ignorance about what for Jazz came so easily, almost made her laugh.

“I don’t know,” Jazz admitted, because she didn’t really know how to explain it. “But you just have to try.”


End file.
